On Tuesday we had a full day of interactive whiteboard presentations to try and find a district standard to move forward with. A lot of teachers are getting grants to purchase interactive whiteboards for classrooms, which is great news! The district is also hoping to purchase a few more for classrooms. The idea is to have one brand throughout the district moving forward. The consistency should make the learning curve faster for students since they won't have to learn a new board in each classroom. Teachers will be able to work together easier since they will all be using the same equipment and software and tech support will be faster as well since there is only one board to learn!
There were 4 companies that presented their products to the group and one stood out above all the others. It was the Eno board made by PolyVision. It is a new product and has only been on the market about a year. There are a few features that make it stand out among the rest. One is the ease of use. The board is simple, quick to learn and smooth to switch from tool to tool. This will make learning how to use it fast and easy. The educational software that goes with the board is also simple. There are tons of great interactive tools to engage and teach students included. The Eno board is also a dry erase board. Teachers no longer have to give up that space on their walls! The board is magnetic, works with dry erase markers and is interactive. Plus, if you have an extra stylus you can have two students using the board at the same time! Or, they can use the markers and you can have as many students write on the board as you have markers!
There were a few other key features about the product and company that we liked as well. Just a few include the precision of the stylus, the professional development offered and the product warranties. The board is very precise so no more clicking two and three times to select the item you want. The group still has a few questions to look into before any official decisions are made. However, the Eno seems like a great product and is definitely worth checking out!
For more information, visit the website:
http://www.polyvision.com/tabid/155/objectid/70/default.aspx
The fresh Polyvision Interactive Whiteboard
ReplyDeleteeno line, accessible in multiple sizes and configurations, is a three-in-one whiteboard, with support for dry-erase, magnets, and interactivity.
We recently purchased an Eno. I'm interested in teaching keyboarding with the Easy Tech Keyboarding program. Have you tried it?
ReplyDeleteHi! Are you referring to Learning.com's Easy Tech? If so, yes! We use it with our K-5 students in Ross. We have had success with it. The one thing we have noticed is you still really have to watch to make sure the students are practicing the correct hand placements with Keyboarding lessons for the older students. I haven't heard of any program that is able to tell if a student is spot typing or not so it isn't a complaint. It is just something you still need to manage.
ReplyDeleteI have not tried Easy Tech with the eno board yet. We are still just getting the hang of them. I am sure you could pull up the keyboard from the eno tools to use with the lessons. I can see that being really helpful especially for younger students being introduced to the keyboard!
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